As previously mentioned, three more students joined our group; O, Ya and S. These young men are current students of the American University in Cairo's branch of STAR - an international organiztion called Student Action for Refugees. Ibrahim, my research partner and translator had been working with them in this program prior to thier involvement in our focus group. They met A and Y, the two students from St. Andrew's during this session.
From my perspective, the 3 1/2 hour session went very well. Each student focused on thier work and the general atmosphere was one of sincere desire to learn. The class ended with an introduction essay, so as to share with the group a little personal information to get to know each other.
Following class, however, it was brought to my attention by Ibrahim that things were quite different from my perception as a non-Arabic speaker. The following is a synopsis of each student and their behavior during and after class:
A-
A is a native Baghdadi with fair skin and soft features. A had been kidnapped with his father, and was physically tortured. Knowing that he could be persecuted to death, he left Iraq with his brother and mother when his father was tortured and killed with "screwdriver." This experience had caused a psychological trauma which we still do not know anything about. In Egypt, he currently does not go to college but will be applying next semester. His goal is to travel to England where his aunt lives. A does not have any Egyptian friends and is not well assimilated into the community.
Y-
Y is A's younger brother who does not seem as interested/grateful as his older brother. Physically, he is fair just like his brother and quite conscious of his appearance. Unlike his brother, however, he goes to school and therefore his social life is not bleak or limited. He is rather stylish and acts like a typical teenager with obsessed about football and talking to his friends using his expensive cell-phone.
COMMENT:
A & Y are from St. Andrews group, separate from O, Ya & S who came from STAR program.Although the well-being of the family seems rather jeopardized especially that the mother suffers from epilepsy and currently in Iraq trying to solve some legal problems, leaving her two sons living alone, their aunt who lives in England takes care financially of the household and anything they need.
O-
O is the youngest from STAR group. His English skills are not as good as the others which probably the reason why he tends not to talk too since we tend to conduct our classes mainly in English. O, generally speaking, is a shy person even when I speak to him in Arabic. We know that he wants to work in police force in future and dreams to travel to Australia but we do not know anything about his situation in Egypt.
Ya-
Ya is the most advanced in terms of the language. He is currently taking level 5 with STAR, which is the highest and hopes to travel soon to Canada. He is married and his wife, an Iraqi, lives in Canada with no children. In the mean time, he lives here with his family while his father who lives in Iraq comes to visit from time to time. Ya enjoys being in the spotlight and usually has a critical attitude about others.
S-
S is also a student in the STAR program. He lives here in Egypt with his mother and sister, and occasionally works as a model. E hopes to travel to the United States in two months with his family for better future. He is very optimistic which makes him always in a good mood. He also is one of the most hard-working students in my class. He enjoys working out and usually hangs out with his friend Ya in the bar.
So much of what is said in Arabic and communicated through body language is lost to me since I have no cultural understanding and cannot speak Arabic. Because of this, Ibrahim brings so much more to the table in terms of research that I as an American white woman would never understand even if given far larger period of time to conduct these focus groups.
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